Books Blog : civil war, New Orleanshttp://evpl.org/community/blogs/books/archive/tags/civil+war/New+Orleans/default.aspxTags: civil war, New OrleansenCommunityServer 2008 SP1 (Build: 30619.63)A Separate Country by Robert Hickshttp://evpl.org/community/blogs/books/archive/2009/11/14/a-separate-country-by-robert-hicks.aspxSat, 14 Nov 2009 19:18:00 GMT9a7b961d-7882-4302-b701-732ca0e566f2:1939HRevvdon@evpl0http://evpl.org/community/blogs/books/rsscomments.aspx?PostID=1939http://evpl.org/community/blogs/books/archive/2009/11/14/a-separate-country-by-robert-hicks.aspx#comments<p><img height="289" width="200" src="http://contentcafe2.btol.com/ContentCafe/Jacket.aspx?UserID=III21&amp;Password=BT0005&amp;Return=1&amp;Type=L&amp;Value=9780446581646" style="float:left;" alt="" /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:normal;margin:0in 0in 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal;"><span style="font-family:&#39;Times New Roman&#39;,&#39;serif&#39;;color:black;font-size:12pt;mso-fareast-font-family:&#39;Times New Roman&#39;;"><a href="http://evans.evpl.org/search~S0?/aHicks%2C+Robert%2C+1951-/ahicks+robert+1951/-3%2C-1%2C0%2CB/frameset&amp;FF=ahicks+robert+1951&amp;2%2C%2C8">A Separate Country</a></span></i></b><span style="font-family:&#39;Times New Roman&#39;,&#39;serif&#39;;color:black;font-size:12pt;mso-fareast-font-family:&#39;Times New Roman&#39;;"> (2009) by <a href="http://evans.evpl.org/search~S0?/aHicks%2C+Robert%2C+1951-/ahicks+robert+1951/-3%2C-1%2C0%2CB/exact&amp;FF=ahicks+robert+1951&amp;1%2C8%2C">Robert Hicks</a> is another of his Civil War epics.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;">&nbsp; </span>Well written in a narrative form, through three main characters, the novel unfolds a complicated story.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;">&nbsp; </span>The novel revolves around John Bell Hood; it is a fictional account of the Confederate general&rsquo;s life after the Civil War.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;">&nbsp; </span>Hood was famous to some for his aggressive battle style and infamous to others for his reckless decision in battle that cost thousands of men their lives.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:normal;margin:0in 0in 10pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal;"><span style="font-family:&#39;Times New Roman&#39;,&#39;serif&#39;;color:black;font-size:12pt;mso-fareast-font-family:&#39;Times New Roman&#39;;">A Separate Country</span></i><span style="font-family:&#39;Times New Roman&#39;,&#39;serif&#39;;color:black;font-size:12pt;mso-fareast-font-family:&#39;Times New Roman&#39;;"> is about his life in New Orleans after the war.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;">&nbsp; </span>On his death bed he asks Eli Griffin, a man who once tried to kill Hood for what he did to Griffin&rsquo;s family during the war, to publish his secret memoir and to seek out and destroy a war memoir that another Confederate general is holding for publication.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;">&nbsp; </span>Hood wants his true memoir, in which he comes to terms with his life and finds love and God, published instead of what he now considers his false war memoir.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;">&nbsp; </span>Eli also finds Mrs. Hood&rsquo;s diaries and memoirs in the house.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:normal;margin:0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family:&#39;Times New Roman&#39;,&#39;serif&#39;;color:black;font-size:12pt;mso-fareast-font-family:&#39;Times New Roman&#39;;">So begins a saga told in the voices of Eli Griffin, John Hood, and Anna Marie Hood.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;">&nbsp; </span>The stories trace John and Anna Marie&rsquo;s tumultuous relationship, their family of eleven children, their dwindling fortune, growing love, social consciousness, and deaths.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;">&nbsp; </span>Mixed in are the intricacies of New Orleans mixed Creole and American society, a black marketeer dwarf, a fop&rsquo;s murder, a giant of a priest, and a man whose only talent is for killing.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:normal;margin:0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family:&#39;Times New Roman&#39;,&#39;serif&#39;;color:black;font-size:12pt;mso-fareast-font-family:&#39;Times New Roman&#39;;">Hick&rsquo;s book is complicated but very good and the style of writing, using the voice of three different protagonists, makes the plot easier to follow and more interesting.</span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="http://evpl.org/community/aggbug.aspx?PostID=1939" width="1" height="1">civil warJohn Bell HoodNew OrleansRobert Hicks